The Government took advantage of the DANA aid decree to introduce a legal modification which will allow the Deputy Operational Director (DAO) of the Police can continue to exercise his functions after 65 years of age. The urgency of this modification was given by the fact that the current number 2 of the police, José Ángel González, will be this age next month and that he did not have time to address this change of another way.
The sources consulted admit that the procedure can attract attention, but they specify that this is not the first time that it has been practiced, at this stage as in previous ones.
The continuity of Chief Commissioner González, known in the Corps as “Iota“, it was an open secret. After having assumed the highest operational responsibility of the Police when the Institution was hit hard by the Villarejo affair, the Police Command managed to calm the waters and make back in the news just for his work.
In addition, the modification puts an end to the comparative grievance which meant that the DAO of the Civil Guard could continue to occupy this position after 65 years while the police officer was obliged to retire.
Commissioner González has become a man of the greatest confidence of the Director General, Francisco Pardoof the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, as well as the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. A discreet man, who prefers to stay behind the scenes, he has not undertaken major reforms in the Police but he has maintained a stable line and made tranquility the norm in the Gendarmerie, and not the other way around. Plus, he didn’t make many enemies for his performance.
Against this decision, many in the police force believe that not having to retire is a good thing. discriminatory against colleagues and this also conveys the image that in the entire Institution, there is no one capable of leading it: “In a way, this makes the rest of the main commissioners look down on them,” say the sources consulted.
